kudoras 84 gallon thread

[kudora]

well after several FW dips my mandarin did not make it. he was not moving around anymore, became blind and was breathing really heavy. the flow in the tank started moving him from place to place. was kinda sad to see him like that since he was so nice and round a week before that.

so i am down to 4 fish in the DT, PBT, kole tang, pajama cardinal and the algae blenny. i dont think i will add any fish for awhile since i am going to be redoing part of the tank late summer.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14782599#post14782599 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kudora
well after several FW dips my mandarin did not make it. he was not moving around anymore, became blind and was breathing really heavy. the flow in the tank started moving him from place to place. was kinda sad to see him like that since he was so nice and round a week before that.

so i am down to 4 fish in the DT, PBT, kole tang, pajama cardinal and the algae blenny. i dont think i will add any fish for awhile since i am going to be redoing part of the tank late summer.

sorry for your loss. How long did you have the mandarine?

 

[Tswifty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14729946#post14729946 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kudora
The second is the ATO, wow what a diff, it cut my daily maint by half. i wish i would have picked one up months ago. best 70 i have spent in awhile lol

Now all you need to do is start mixing some kalk in that ATO reservoir, and let the dosing part go away as well.

 

[kudora]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14782626#post14782626 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by capn_hylinur
sorry for your loss. How long did you have the mandarine?

10 months, he was a fat little fellow, i will eventually pick up a pair

 

[kudora]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14782653#post14782653 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tswifty
Now all you need to do is start mixing some kalk in that ATO reservoir, and let the dosing part go away as well.

its something i have been considering now that i see the jbj in action.

 

[Rae C.]

Sorry to hear about the mandarin. Tank is looking great! How does you ATO work? I'm still using the gallon jug every evening method. Not really that much of a PITA, but my geek hubby loves to mechanize anything.

 

[Tswifty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14784067#post14784067 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kudora
its something i have been considering now that i see the jbj in action.

Yep, and it's not as scary as everyone makes it out to be. Such a small amount is added at a time via an ATO, that you shouldn't have to worry. When you start, you just want to mix it at the 1 teaspoon per gallon potency, and monitor your pH a few times that first day. Then check your alk & ca maybe every day or two for the first week.

Adding the ATO was awesome, but the switch from 2-part to kalk was up there with one of the best decisions I made on that 90g tank.

 

[kudora]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14785331#post14785331 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rae C.
Sorry to hear about the mandarin. Tank is looking great! How does you ATO work? I'm still using the gallon jug every evening method. Not really that much of a PITA, but my geek hubby loves to mechanize anything.

Its really easy, the unit comes with a controler unit, two float valves with snail guards and brackets to hangs the valves. hang the two floats them in your sump were your return is.
i hung them around an inch apart(one is higher then the other) you have one float that is the sensor that turns on your pump to sure the water stays at that level you wanted and the other float would turn your pump off incase the float is stuck.

next I pluged in a toms aqualifter into the controller to pump ro/di water out of my old salt bucket to the sump. i used a old seaweed clip to hold the airline tubing down in the bucket. they give you an extra bracket you can use to secure the airline tubing with a ziptie.
its very important that the tubing putting the water into the sump sits high and will not be submerged since it could syphon back into the ro/di container.

in the jbj controller the setup i used is known as mode b and i click the switch on it and pluged the controller in. it was working right away. if the pump runs for too long(didnt time it) it automatically shuts the power off to the pump.

since i had everything i needed it prob took 10 to 15 min to set everything up.

i can take some pics of my setup tonight if your are interested rae

 

[kudora]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14785812#post14785812 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tswifty
Yep, and it's not as scary as everyone makes it out to be. Such a small amount is added at a time via an ATO, that you shouldn't have to worry. When you start, you just want to mix it at the 1 teaspoon per gallon potency, and monitor your pH a few times that first day. Then check your alk & ca maybe every day or two for the first week.

Adding the ATO was awesome, but the switch from 2-part to kalk was up there with one of the best decisions I made on that 90g tank.

will i have to clean out the aqualifter pump every once in a while?
also, did you empty out your container everytime and clean it out or did you just stir it up everyonce in a while?

 

[Taqpol]

If you dose kalk while using an aqualifter I highly recomend you get the optional prefilter you can get for aqualifters. It made all the difference in the world for me and kalk sludge plugging up my tubes.

 

[kudora]

your right taq, i have one of those prefilters on my other aqualifter, it makes sense that i would just clean that filter out instead of the unit itself thx!

 

[Tswifty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14785924#post14785924 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kudora
will i have to clean out the aqualifter pump every once in a while?
also, did you empty out your container everytime and clean it out or did you just stir it up everyonce in a while?

I flushed the aqualifter with hot water once a month. Also, you want to make sure the tube is not drawing from the bottom of the container, so it doesn't pull any kalk residue into the line. I glued a strip of eggcrate on the inside of my container then fished the tube through it so that it stayed in place (about 1/2" to 1" off the bottom), and never drew from the very bottom.

I just refilled the container once a week. When using a still reservoir, you only mix the kalk once... when you make up the batch, then you just let it sit. You need to allow about an hour for the kalk to settle after you dump a fresh batch into your ATO reservoir though, just to make sure no particles end up in your system.

As far as the container. I never cleaned mine. Once every 6 months was what people seemed to do.

 

[kudora]

thx TJ for the info
i might go ahead and set that up since i have an ATO running

 

[kudora]

update time, these pics were taken in the last couple weeks
with more pics to come later tonight!!!!


pic of my mandrin(r.i.p) trying to combat what ever he picked up from the female that died.

pick of my large turbo that is has feather dusters growning on him plus a shot of the BOP in the back.

shot of a worm i have seen in the fuge, not a bristle work either, very dark blue(pic is fuzzy sorry its really quick)

and finally a quiz
can you guess what this shot is of

 

[imcosmokramer]

looks good so far

 

[Taqpol]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14858405#post14858405 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kudora
and finally a quiz
can you guess what this shot is of

Is it a Tuxedo Urchin with chunks of coralline on it? My urchin literally has a favorite pair of zoanthids it carries with it at all times....

 

[kudora]

you guessed right taqpol!!!!
picked that little guy up around 3 weeks ago and its been a great addition.

 

[kudora]

back with some more pics


picked up some coral locally and holding some for a friend while his tank is ready

the sand bed is kinda full now, notice the rather large short tentacle plate coral in the back.

another shot of the left side with all the lps and zoas

shot of sps

another shot since you couldnt see oras bretts green cap

 

[kudora]

left side

right side

i will eventually use that large piece of tonga to "bridge" both rock islands together and put 3 different sps on the bridge.

The tangs were not camera shy, usually you cant even tell i have fish in the tank.

 

[ackerman]

Tanks lookin really good, love the choice of tangs